


Rose

by DeliaDestruction



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-15
Updated: 2013-04-15
Packaged: 2017-12-08 14:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/762195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeliaDestruction/pseuds/DeliaDestruction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of her life, her name is just a word.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rose

“Doctor it’s not your fault. Know it’s not your fault,” Rose’s voice faltered as she spoke the words.

“Rose-” the name caught on the Doctor’s tongue.

“It’s all right, Doctor. I’m not afraid.” Rose gripped her cell phone tight in her fingers. She knew that, despite the boost the Doctor had given the phone, she would soon lose signal. “I’m not-”

A low, guttural growl cut her off and something knocked her to the ground. The impact with the broken rock beneath her sent her cell phone spiraling across the surface before falling into the abyss beyond the edge of the rock face. Rose Tyler stifled a sob as she struggled to pull away from the beast that had her.

It wore the Doctor’s face but it was not the Doctor, not her Doctor. “Stop this! Please!” she pleaded, hoping that her phone was long gone, that the Doctor couldn’t hear her begging for her life so far below the surface of the planet.

As she scrambled to her feet, the beast in the Doctor’s clothing grabbed her ankle, closing its fist tight around her flesh. She hollered in pain, stumbling backwards as she heard a terrible pop and felt a flash of white-hot pain followed by a steady, throbbing pain that shot up her leg.

It pulled her closer to it, opening its mouth to show its horrible teeth. Rose couldn’t stand to look at it, to see the Doctor’s face with those terrible teeth, those dead eyes. Yet at the same time she couldn’t quite force herself to look away.

“You’re not the Doctor and I’m not afraid of you!” She croaked, kicking at it in vain with her free leg. She grabbed for the cracks in the rock, trying to pull herself away and hissing against the pain in her leg. The creature’s grip didn’t loosen no matter how she tried to shake it.

 _Rose_. Like a far off voice, she thought she heard her name being spoken. At the same time, she felt the creature take her other ankle in its other hand. Before she could cry out in protest, the creature took and snapped her foot outward, bending it all the way so it came back to touch her leg. Rose screamed, flailing wildly against its grasp, desperate to stop the pain.

 

 _It’s all right, Doctor. I’m not afraid._ The last statement Rose had spoken directly to him echoed through the Doctor’s mind as he paced around the console of the TARDIS. She was down too deep, there wasn’t a proper space to land the TARDIS. Nothing that deep was stable, not even the air.

If the TARDIS materialized down there, it could set off a chain reaction and he would most definitely doom Rose Tyler to death. And for Rose Tyler to die… Her death was the last thing he wanted. End of story.

“I’m not afraid,” Rose’s voice came so clear across the connection, “I’m not-” Something on her end of the connection made a loud thudding sound, followed by scraping that hurt the Doctor’s ears. There were a few clicks and snaps, and then silence.

“Rose?” the Doctor asked, “Rose, are you there?” No answer. “Rose, answer me!” Still nothing. “ _Rose!_ ”

Finally, after a few agonizing moments, the Doctor could hear something on the other end of the line, but it was what he’d hoped not to hear. Rose Tyler was hollering in pain, struggling against that thing.

Every moment, every scream that escaped Rose Tyler’s lips was torture.

 _“No, no, no please-”_ The Doctor couldn’t take it any longer. He looked over a map of the cavern Rose had fallen into and found a spot about 100 feet above Rose and the thing that had stolen his image- a ledge, an outcropping of rock that would put him nearly directly on top of them. The TARDIS could safely land there, but that still didn’t get him down to her.

He went for it, punching in the coordinates and maneuvering the controls, staring solemnly at the display that showed the map of the cavern.

“I’m coming for you, Rose.”

 

It was beginning to change form. Rose was certain that it was no longer trying to hold the Doctor’s visage. As much as she’d wished it would’ve taken any other form, the Doctor had at least not been completely disturbing. She could see now that it had long, sharp claws at the end of each finger that matched its teeth.

Those teeth… If she did survive this, by some unlikely show of mercy on the part of the universe, she would never be able to get the image of those teeth from her mind- much less the sensation of those teeth tearing at the flesh and bone of her feet and legs.

 _I’m being eaten alive. It’s the year 8520, I’m deep in the crust of a planet whose name I can’t even pronounce, and… And the Doctor is gonna be all alone again. And it’s my fault,_ she thought. Delirium was beginning to take her. She was finding it harder and harder to fight.

At least the pain was beginning to fade.

Off in the distance, she thought she could hear a familiar noise. “Doc…tor...?” she murmured as her eyes drooped closed and she gave up.

The last things she was aware of were sharp claws digging into the flesh of her abdomen, and that word, that word that had once been so important to her, she just couldn’t remember why…

_Rose._


End file.
